"Longtime heroin users, for instance, have been observed to require ten thousand times the dose they injected when they began their habit. Their brains adapt to heroin to such an extent that they inject themselves with quantities of this narcotic that could kill a person not tolerant to heroin." (Page 168)

Braun gives "Goldstein, A. 'Addiction, from Biology to Drug Policy.' New York: Freeman." as his source for this information, but this "10,000 times" increase in dose appears to be exaggerated.

When the Swiss government began allowing maintanence of heroin users, they were able to collect reliable data about exactly how much heroin was being used. The Swiss found that users offered unlimited quantities would, on average, max out at between 300 and 500 mg. of diacetylmorphine per day. One author writes "I've known people prescribed a full gram per day, but they were quite unusual, and such habits on the street are impossible except for relatively high level dealers. Remember, I'm talking about pure pharmaceutical or number 4 if on the street. There are certainly cases of pain patients receiving larger equivalent dosages of opioids, but I've never heard of one of these beating a 1000/1 ratio."